Sinkhole eating family out of house and home

Story highlights

The couple awaits a resolution from insurance company as the hole grows

It comes as new video is available of another sinkhole that killed a man

The sinkhole first opened up in August of 2011, a relatively small thing, 2 feet wide and 5 feet deep.

But in the 15 months since then, Florida couple John and Tina Furlow have watched helplessly as the sinkhole expands, threatening to swallow their bedroom.

"Now it's approximately 8, 9 feet long," John Furlow told CNN affiliate WFLA last month at their home in Hernando County on Florida's west coast.

"Every day, in our bedroom, we lay down and look up and there's more and more cracks. We're just, 'hey look, there's another one,'" said his wife.

The growing cavern underneath their bedroom is reminiscent of another sinkhole in nearby Hillsborough County that claimed the life of Jeff Bush.

Photos: When the ground gives way 19 photos

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – An increasing number of sinkholes have appeared in and around the neighborhood where the Lotte World Tower is being built in Seoul, South Korea. The first one was discovered in June and several others have appeared since then, according to local media reports, causing the construction of what would be Seoul's tallest building to come under scrutiny.

Hide Caption

1 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – Eight Corvettes fell into a sinkhole that opened up beneath a section of the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on February 12. The sinkhole was about 40 feet wide and 25-30 feet deep.

Hide Caption

2 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – The rear portion of a residential home is consumed by a sinkhole November 14 in Dunedin, Florida.

Hide Caption

3 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A 60-foot-wide sinkhole formed underneath the Summer Bay Resort in Clermont, Florida, about 10 minutes from Walt Disney World, on August 11. One resort building collapsed, and another slowly sank.

Hide Caption

4 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A backhoe is swallowed by a sinkhole in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on August 6. The driver of the backhoe was not injured.

Hide Caption

5 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A sinkhole killed a guard at a construction site in Shenzhen, China, on March 27. The sinkhole might have been caused by heavy rains and the collapsing of old water pipes running beneath the surface, the Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported.

Hide Caption

6 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – Workers watch the demolition of the house where a sinkhole opened three days before in Seffner, Florida, on March 3. Sinkholes caused by acidic groundwater corroding the limestone or carbonate rock underground are common in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Hide Caption

7 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – Buildings fell into a sinkhole near a subway construction site in Guangzhou, China, in January 2013. The hole measured about 1,000 square feet across and 30 feet deep and was without casualties, according to a state media report.

Hide Caption

8 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A basketball court in Ortley Beach, New Jersey, fell into a sinkhole caused by Superstorm Sandy in November 2012.

Hide Caption

9 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – In July 2011, a man inspects a 40-foot-deep sinkhole that a family found after they heard a booming noise in their kitchen in Guatemala City, Guatemala.

Hide Caption

10 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – Construction on a subway line caused a huge sinkhole to form in a road in Beijing in April 2011.

Hide Caption

11 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – An aerial photo shows sinkholes created by the drying of the Dead Sea near Israel in 2011.

Hide Caption

12 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A utility worker examines the area around a sinkhole caused by a broken water main in Chevy Chase, Maryland, in December 2010.

Hide Caption

13 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – Tropical Storm Agatha caused a sinkhole to open in Guatemala City in May 2010.

Hide Caption

14 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A fire truck protrudes from a sinkhole as Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa talks to reporters in September 2009.

Hide Caption

15 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A water main collapsed an entire block-long part of Ocean Park Boulevard in Santa Monica, California, in December 2002.

Hide Caption

16 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – In Orlando, a sinkhole 150 feet wide and 60 feet deep swallowed trees, pipelines and a section of sidewalk near an apartment building in June 2002.

Hide Caption

17 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – A 30-foot-deep sinkhole appeared in a busy street in a suburb east of downtown Los Angeles. A motorist drove into the hole but was rescued before a concrete slab fell onto the car.

Hide Caption

18 of 19

Photos: When the ground gives way19 photos

When the ground gives way – "The Great Blue Hole" is the name of a massive underwater sinkhole off the coast of Belize. The deeper you go, the clearer the water becomes, revealing amazing stalactites and limestone.

Just Watched

Sinkhole victim's body unreachable

Authorities demolished the house after they couldn't recover Bush's body from the massive hole that opened up under his bedroom. That sinkhole was about 20 feet wide and 50 to 60 feet deep, and the suburban Tampa house was in danger of collapsing.

For the Furlows, the nightmare has developed much more slowly.

Cracks have begun to appear on walls and floors, and the couple now sleeps in a different bedroom. They removed heavy furniture from their bedroom in hopes of buying more time.

The couple told WFLA that they made a claim with their insurance company, but that a year and a half later there has been no resolution.

A sinkhole can be catastrophic, as the incident that took Bush's life showed.

New video obtained by CNN affiliate Bay News 9 shows the inside of the sinkhole that claimed his life. The video was taken by Hillsborough County officials before the house was demolished. It was recorded by attaching a camera to a pole that reached into Bush's bedroom through a window.

The video shows a cavernous hole that left just the edges of the floor around the bedroom.

Bush's brother, Jeremy, had jumped in the hole to try to rescue his brother, but only after he saw the video did he understand how large it was, and why officials pulled him out.

"It is totally different than what I thought it was," he told Bay News 9.

Sinkholes are common in the state, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Florida lies on bedrock made of limestone or other carbonate rock that can be eaten away by acidic groundwater, forming voids that collapse when the rock can no longer support the weight of what's above it.